California San Fernando Mission

Van Nuys Week 4

Oh yeah. Once again, suuuuch a great week. Missions are so bomb. Our week was quite eventful! Lots of memories made and good times had. Once again, we found our week filled with exchanges. Well, actually just 2 but it seemed like a long time haha. But in case you’ve forgotten, exchanges are the best thing on the planet. Such great opportunities to learn from other missionaries, see how they like to do certain things, then get to pick out specific things you like to put into practice yourself. It’s the greatest. Here’s a rundown of how they went.

Tuesday to Wednesday Elder Gutierrez came to our area to work with me while Elder Kimball went with Elder Jensen. It was such a miraculous exchange. As soon as we hit the pavement the Lord blessed us with one thing after another. It all started just 20 minutes in! We found an investigator of ours named Ivan again, and after sharing a brief message on the Restoration, we were able to set a baptismal date with him! He replied yes to inquiry without a hint of hesitation. He even mentioned to us: “I actually really like your church”…and he hasn’t even been yet! We were so excited we forgot to invite him to church that Sunday haha. Oops. So he wasn’t there yesterday but there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll be there next week. We also got to strengthen some less active members and commit them to come back to church. That was sweet. Plus, you already know we talked with everyone. Just a fabulous exchange.

Next was Friday to Saturday with my good buddy Elder Speth aka Assistant Elder Speth. I freaking love that man so much haha. We had a blast together and I learned a ton. Here’s one cool experience we had: we were walking around a cluster of apartment complexes and no one was in sight. Disappointed, we stopped for a second to go over our plans and try to find some people to teach. As we stood there, we heard a man in an upstairs apartment talking with someone on the phone. Being the kind of no-fear missionary he is, Elder Speth suggested we go up the stairs to talk with him. So we did it, and he was sweet! We got to share the Book of Mormon, and out of nowhere he stopped us for a second so he could read the Introduction. And he did haha! We sat there for a good 5 minute inspired pause to let him finish. He had some great questions afterwards too. Unfortunately he only spoke English, so we sent him off as a referral to the English missionaries. Later in the day we also took out a sweet recent convert member named Pedro to a lesson. Pedro might now be my most favorite person ever haha. He’s hilarious and is a boss in lessons. At one point in the lesson he was playing around on his phone a little and when we whispered to him “Pedro…le toca” (your turn) he picked it right up where we left off and even shared a sweet scripture. So cool. He’s in his early 20s but is still planning on leaving on his mission asap.

Fun side note: we got to go on a sweet #RoadTrip up to Santa Clarita for a doctors appointment of Elder Kimball’s. No worries though, it was just a precautionary thing and he’s 100% fine. But I did find out that traffic here is teeeerrible, almost as bad a Houston. Note to self: don’t set doctors appointments during rush hour.

We didn’t have any investigators come to church yesterday, but other that then that a lot of our investigators are finally progressing pretty well! I already mentioned Ivan, but we also have several others that have some major ganas to get baptized. Things are finally starting to pick up around here! Just now comes the always present obstacle of church attendance haha. But asi es.

This is looking to be a great week as well. A couple of exchanges planned plus on Friday we have our quarterly interviews with President Hall. It will probably be my last interviews with him, as he heads home in June. Looking forward to the opportunity for sure. Plus I heard the Rockets are in the Conference Finals!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Btw, everyone’s pretty salty around here they knocked out the Clips hahahaha)